atomic bombing of Hiroshima

occupation / innovator as

United States Ambassador to France

ambassador

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

nationality

American

World War II

politician

military officer

diplomat

World War I

Chief of Naval Operations

Governor

Spanish–American War

is an event that was completely unnecessary from a national-defense point of view. The war would have ended had we just continued to intensify the air and sea blockade and at the same time occupy the philippines.

Both Eisenhower and MacArthur thought Japan's defeat was imminent. Chief of staff Admiral William D. Leahy insisted that even an invasion of Japan was unnecessary to end the war: 'I was unable to see any justification, from a national-defense point of view, for an invasion of an already thoroughly defeated Japan.' Leahy calculated that it would be too costly in American lives to invade Japan in order to extract an unconditional surrender. The navy alone, he thought, could bring an end to the war. 'My conclusion, with which the naval representatives agreed, was that America's least expensive course of action was to continue to intensify the air and sea blockade and at the same time occupy the Philippines. I believed that a completely blockaded Japan would then fall by its own weight.'

William D. LeahyThinkers

William D. Leahy